Freedom of the Press...
…to back down whenever the White House cries foul.
Much has been made lately of Newsweek retracting a story about treatment of prisoners at the hands of American interrogators at Guantanamo Bay, including mistreatment of the Koran. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7693014/site/newsweek
What doesn’t get talked about much is that Newsweek’s report was not the first published report of desecration of the Koran by American interrogators.
The Washington Post mentioned it on 3/26/2003: http://home.btclick.com/caab/Guantanamo.htm
The BBC mentioned it 5/2/2005:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4505403.stm
The New York Times mentioned it 5/1/2005: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0501-02.htm
Not to mention the fact that no one in the White House complained about the Newsweek article when it first came out. No mention of it was made by anyone at the White House for two weeks. And then only after the protests in Afghanistan embarrassed the Pentagon and the White House was any complaint made. And even then General Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff said that the Newsweek article was not the cause of the troubles in Afghanistan. “He believes that the protests had stemmed from the country’s reconciliation process,” according to The Ledger: http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050517/ZNYT03/505170408
But none of that matters. Nor does it matter that much of the Newsweek article IS TRUE as are many of the other independent reports coming out of American run detention centers in Cuba, Afghanistan and Iraq. The fact that Americans now routinely torture people without due process or access to representation is not the issue. The fact that this torture has been described independently by numerous sources is not the issue. The White House wants to blame the media for foreign reaction to the Administration’s cruel and unusual treatment of prisoners and Newsweek is playing along. What next? Do the news agencies need to clear all their stories with the administration first? As if the Bush Administration does not distort the facts to fit their corporate agendas.
How about a little good old fashioned freedom of the press for a change?
Much has been made lately of Newsweek retracting a story about treatment of prisoners at the hands of American interrogators at Guantanamo Bay, including mistreatment of the Koran. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7693014/site/newsweek
What doesn’t get talked about much is that Newsweek’s report was not the first published report of desecration of the Koran by American interrogators.
The Washington Post mentioned it on 3/26/2003: http://home.btclick.com/caab/Guantanamo.htm
The BBC mentioned it 5/2/2005:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4505403.stm
The New York Times mentioned it 5/1/2005: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0501-02.htm
Not to mention the fact that no one in the White House complained about the Newsweek article when it first came out. No mention of it was made by anyone at the White House for two weeks. And then only after the protests in Afghanistan embarrassed the Pentagon and the White House was any complaint made. And even then General Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff said that the Newsweek article was not the cause of the troubles in Afghanistan. “He believes that the protests had stemmed from the country’s reconciliation process,” according to The Ledger: http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050517/ZNYT03/505170408
But none of that matters. Nor does it matter that much of the Newsweek article IS TRUE as are many of the other independent reports coming out of American run detention centers in Cuba, Afghanistan and Iraq. The fact that Americans now routinely torture people without due process or access to representation is not the issue. The fact that this torture has been described independently by numerous sources is not the issue. The White House wants to blame the media for foreign reaction to the Administration’s cruel and unusual treatment of prisoners and Newsweek is playing along. What next? Do the news agencies need to clear all their stories with the administration first? As if the Bush Administration does not distort the facts to fit their corporate agendas.
How about a little good old fashioned freedom of the press for a change?
posted by Jay Larsen at 4:55 PM
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